In addition to conventional splice cassettes for up to twenty-four splices accommodated in splice cassette housings and providing a sufficient working length of switching and bundle wires, splice receiving portions for a maximum of two splices have become known in the art as the so-called "single-circuit management".
These splice receiving portions designated "singlecircuit management" are carrier shells for two glass fibers movably combined by a carrier to a unit. The application of such carriers is advantageous when high safety requirements are to be met by the connection to be switched. A rigid and controlled guiding of the fibers is secured.
From U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,480 it is known in the art to provide a splice cassette comprising a housing with cable connection means for one or more glass fibers and a carrier, and a multitude of carrier shells. The carrier shells are rotatably connected at one end to the carrier. Each carrier shell can be moved between a stacked and a lifted position, in order to facilitate access to the carrier shells arranged underneath.
For guiding the fibers, flexible transportation sleeves are used that are employed from the cable connection means to the carrier shells. In the first guiding section which can be several meters long, a transportation sleeve having corresponding dimensions is slid over one of the bundle wires and guided up to the first distribution element. For example, eight fibers guided up to there are divided into four times two fibers. On two fibers, thinner transportation sleeves are then slid and guided over guiding grooves to the carrier shells. In the carrier shells further guiding of the fibers is performed without the sleeves.
This kind of splice cassette is difficult to handle, in particular when mounting at terminal distribution devices, due to the long guiding distances of the fibers and the necessity of sliding the transportation sleeves on. Preparation of the splicing process is expensive, inconvenient and difficult. Furthermore, no reserve lengths are available, in order to arrive at the splice workplace. The constructional height is always determined by the height of the carrier shells, irrespective of the number of carrier shells or also of the connection positions.